


Neon Lights & Acid Trips

by Arctic_Pheonix



Category: inFAMOUS (Video Games), inFAMOUS: Second Son, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Aizawa isn't paid enough, Aro/Ace Midoriya Izuku, Aromantic, Asexual Character, Ashido Mina Has One for All Quirk, BAMF Uraraka Ochako, Bakugou Katsuki is Bad at Feelings, Cafe Leblanc (Persona 5), Class 1-A as Family (My Hero Academia), Eri Needs a Hug (My Hero Academia), F/F, Midoriya Izuku Does Not Have One for All Quirk, Midoriya Izuku Has a Quirk, Midoriya Izuku is a Little Shit, Not Shinsou Friendly, Other, Overpowered Midoriya Izuku, Protective Bakugou Katsuki, Protective Eri (My Hero Academia), Stain is a fucking idiot, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:41:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29221866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arctic_Pheonix/pseuds/Arctic_Pheonix
Summary: Izuku Midoriya learned at a young age that not all men are created equally, some have incredible power and others have no power. Sometimes the systems we think are there for us fail or are used against us. Then at eight he is faced with a choice that changes it all.Character Select.Izuku Midoriya has a simple goal. She will be the number one hero. One neon sign at a time.(Not a gamer fic.)
Relationships: Ashido Mina & Bakugou Katsuki, Ashido Mina & Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku, Ashido Mina & Midoriya Izuku, Ashido Mina & Uraraka Ochako, Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku, Jirou Kyouka/Yaoyorozu Momo, Kurusu Akira/Niijima Makoto, Midoriya Izuku/Uraraka Ochako, Sakura Futaba & Hatsume mei
Comments: 28
Kudos: 89





	1. Choices and Changes

Izuku Midoriya learned at the young age of four a life lesson that most go their lives without, not all men are created equal. At the time he didn’t understand that lesson, not properly at least. Over the next several years he would learn that some were suited for being a firefighter, others as accountants and some as famous musicians while others would make good heroes.

Izuku Midoriya would not make a good hero, not because he was a bad person, far from it. No Izuku lacked the fundamental needed part of being a hero, a quirk. Even with his out of place green hair and verdant eyes he would never have a quirk. If Izuku had realized it his bullies had only sooner.

“It says Deku.” A blonde boy said to ohs and ahs even as Izuku protested. It was Izuku’s name written down but the boy wasn’t necessarily wrong. “That’s one way to read it. And Deku means useless.”

The other kids around them laughed at the green haired boy even as tears began to gather in his eyes. The blonde smiled as he looked down at the other. Izuku Midoriya had no quirk to defend himself against his classmates and even only a week after finding out he knew the teachers weren't coming to help.

“Just like all the teachers say, useless.” The blonde laughed along with the crowd this time. “While I’ll make a perfect hero you're useless as one.”

“Th-that’s not true Kacchan! There’s plenty of heroes who don’t fight with their quirks.” Izuku said, desperation for anything to grasp onto in that instance. Anything to make it end, anything to make him hopeful. The blonde scowled

“They still have quirks Deku.” The blonde said. Years later Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugou would laugh this interaction away, talking all the while about how it was yet another example of kids picking up what adults said.

They say children can be cruel, that they have a brutal honesty about them. In reality kids are only as cruel as the world around them and Katsuki Bakugou lived in a cruel world. The day he got his quirk his life was made, his destiny decided and his praise sung. All before he could ever understand the choice that was thrust upon him. He would be a hero and his school would make sure of it.

All the while Izuku Midoriya would suffer with all the ambition, all the goodness of his heart. Missing the one key detail he needed, the one part that he couldn’t do without. For years Izuku would work hard to try and be a hero, never quite able to come close to closing the gap between him and his peers.

“Get out of the way Deku.” Bakugou punched one hand into the other, an explosive burst highlighting the six year olds words. “Stop playing hero.”

“You-your hurting him Kacchan!” Even as he shook Izuku stood his ground. He held his hands up as he stood between his classmates and their newest target. “A hero wouldn’t do that. I won't let you do that.”

“Wont let me?” Bakugou growled, sparks flickering in his palms. “Move Deku.”

Izuku Midoriya would endure four years of that hell, four years of torment. Unchanging torment while the teachers stood by and did nothing, or worse yet, encouraged it. One day, just before the weekend, when he was eight Izuku failed to notice something. A glowing blue screen in the corner of his vision, slowly blinking words flashed on it.

_Character Select_

Izuku went home later that day in his usual dejected mood. He had started multiple hobbies as a result of his lack of friends, hero notes being the primary one as he wrote in his notebook while walking. He passed by only one hero fight and it could only lift his mood so much. Once home Izuku walked to his room and laid on his bed, the blinking blue screen finally catching his eye.

“That’s weird.” _Character Select._ “Character select? What does that mean?”

The little notification continued to blink, leaving Izuku’s question unanswered. Izuku glanced around the room and caught sight of a stack of games, the one on top standing out. An old game with some morality system from centuries ago. Getting a physical copy was a difficult task but he’d found it worthwhile.

“Uh… Fetch?” Everything happened at once. The blue notification expanded and filled his center of vision. The dim light not touching anything around him but Izuku was too distracted to notice. “Is this my quirk? I have a quirk?”

Izuku’s joy was almost physical at that, tears gathering in his eyes as he struggled with his emotions, it couldn’t be possible. Were hios wishes being answered finally? Maybe he would be able to achieve his dreams.

_Character Selection Registered_

_Abigail “Fetch” Walker_

_Processing…_

_..._

_Match found_

_Final Selection?_

_Yes_ _No_

“Uh, yes?” Izuku said. The screen shifted to more closely match the menu screens of First Light, except with no other options.

_Selection Registered_

_Initializing…_

_..._

_Error: User’s body is incompatible with selection_

_Seeking solution…_

_..._

_Solution found_

_Initializing…_

_…_

_Seeking source of neon energy_

_Source located_

_Finalizing…_

Suddenly Izuku felt a rush of energy. Bright purple and orange light seeping into him from the window. The light bathed everything around him and made it impossible to see. The light flooded his senses and Izuku could feel the power as it flooded his body. Once the light faded Izuku was left panting, struggling for air after the sheer euphoria of that much power flooding his body. The screen was still hovering there.

_Finalization complete_

_Character Selection Complete_

_Status:_

_User: Izuku Midoriya_

_Character selection: Abigail “Fetch” Walker_

_Abilities: Neon manipulation_

_Next Selection available in [REDACTED]_

Izuku blinked and watched as the menu vanished. Next selection? What could that mean? Not that it mattered, Izuku glanced at his hands and let the power flow. Purple and orange light danced over his hands and arms and he had to grin.

“Izuku I’m home. I was thinking of making Katsudon for dinner.” Izuku jumped up and ran out of his room, stumbling along the way.

“Mom!” His voice sounded odd. Maybe it was just his excitement. “Mom I got my quirk!”

“Izuku?” Inko Midoriya turned and froze at what she saw. “Izuku is-is that you?”

“Mom?” Izuku paused. Why would his mom not recognize him? Was it because his voice was different? “Mom what’s wrong?”

“Izuku sweetie would you come here?” Izuku walked over to his mother and she lifted him up. She walked to the bathroom and paused just before flipping the light. “Remember sweetie it’s okay.”

Izuku blinked once the light was turned on. His hair was straighter and longer than before on top of being pink with green tips in the shade his hair had been not five minutes earlier. His eyes were ringed in purple and while his freckles mostly remained his face had changed a lot.

“Oh.” Izuku was dumbstruck looking into the mirror. It was like looking at a complete stranger.

* * *

_I may not have known it at the time but that’s the day everything changed. That was the birth of a hero, of one of the best heroes. All because of a little blue window I missed for an entire day. It was strange at first but after what happened when I was four I wasn’t going to let anything be a barrier, not again._

* * *

“Well it certainly is a quirk.” A doctor said. Her black hair shifted as she turned her head to look at Inko. “I’d like the name of the quack job that told you otherwise.”

“Later please. Could you tell us what it is?” Inko said, glancing back to Izuku who was bouncing in place with excitement.

“Yes of course. We did confirm that the transformation is thorough, possibly down to a genetic level.” The doctor paused. “Well as it did cause a complete change in gender we know it was down to a genetic level but I digress. Your… child’s quirk factor test was expedited yesterday do to the importance of your case, late childhood quirk development can have lasting effects on the mind you see.”

“Get on with it.”

“Right. We were able to confirm one thing, a more thorough test will be needed later, your child's quirk factor has no signs of neon manipulation within it.” The doctor glanced at Izuku, an all might hoodie on and hair up[ in a short ponytail. Inko nodded. “Izuku sweetie could you tell me what happened leading up to this?”

“Uh huh. When I got home I saw this little blue box in the air. It said Character Select, I thought it meant my favorite character so I said Fetch and then a bunch of words I don’t know came up and there was all this bright light and I was like this.” Izuku rambled off, smile never faltering and voice quickening with every word.

“Character select? Fetch… Where have I heard that name before?” The doctor muttered. “Ma'am, does your child play video gameS?”

“Yes, all the time he, er, they are quite proud of the collection.” Inko said, glancing back at Izuku again. “Why?”

“Odd, if I recall a character in a game called Infamous is named Fetch and she bears a striking resemblance to Izuku.” The doctor paused and wheel to her desk. “Character select… Hm. Nurse contact Deepdive, tell him to get here as quickly as possible.”

_“May I ask how important it is doctor?”_

“Tell him I found a quirk that if I’m right may answer his theory.” The doctor wheeled back around once the nurse confirmed he would be on his way. “Sorry about that, I thought we could finish this today.”

“I would prefer that thank you.” Inko smiled. “Is this normal though? Izuku’s quirk I mean”

“Oh yes, transformations of this scale aren’t uncommon when it comes to quirk awakenings. Why a patient of mine several years ago had her body turn completely pink! And another has no lips.” The doctor smiled, a reassuring grin that helped calm Inko’s nerves. “In fact this isn’t even the first time I’ve seen a quirk alter the users gender. Last time they weren’t my patient however.”

“So there’s some kind of plan?”

“I have a list of recommendations to give and a couple side notes to add.” the doctor grabbed her clipboard. “First, I recommend counseling or therapy, this is a big change and for as happy as Izuku looks it won't be easy. Second see a quirk specialist, I wouldn’t trust the school to handle that well considering the contradictory reports I’ve seen for several students.”

“Thank you, I’m not sure how we’ll go about that.” Inko looked worried. “I’ll have to come up with the money somehow I suppose.”

“I doubt it’ll be a problem. Now then, thirdly I do want to point out that for as hard as this will be you are lucky with the timing. I did say other quirks have had similar effects.” The doctor winced. “One of those cases activated in the middle of puberty, handling that was difficult.”

“I can only imagine.” Inko looked back at Izuku. Izuku was staring at the neon lights in pure glee, having a quirk was exactly as expected. Inko looked forward again. “Thank you again fo-”

“Ah, I deal with children all the time ma’am, letting them use their new quirks is often the best way to keep them entertained.” The doctor leaned back and watched the dancing lights for a moment as well.

 _“Doctor, Deepdive is here, and it sounds like he ran halfway around the city.”_ the doctor smiled and asked the nurse to send him up. Moments later the door burst open, a hero in a primarily black suit came into the room, his green viser shifting upwards and behind his ears.

“Takemi! I came as soon as I- Oh sorry I thought you’d be done with patients for the time.” Deepdive looked sheepish and Doctor Takemi laughed lightly.

“No no, they’re why I called you. Izuku here awoke their quirk, I was hoping you could tell us what it is.” Doctor Takemi leaned forward and looked him over. “So, will you? Or should I call my little guinea pig.”

“No no, I’ll do it just give me a minute to catch my breath.” Deepdive took his own seat and glared at Takemi. “I hoped you were above using him as a threat.”

“Oh please, I gave free examinations to spite my old boss, I’m above nothing.” Deepdive rolled his eyes and turned to Izuku. His eyes trailed back and forth briefly before he whistled.

“Well, you were right, the quirk has nothing to do with neon.” Deepdive smiled. “Congratulations Izuku Midoriya, your quirk let’s you select a video game character and gain their powers.”

* * *

A little over a week later Izuku stood outside the school. A week of counseling and doctors visits had helped her adjust far faster than many would expect. Deepdive eagerly suggested that since quirks adapt aspects needed for the user to use them, such as someone with a quirk that generates excessive force having reinforced joints, that maybe her quirk helped.

Izuku Midoriya was almost certain it was her quirk helping but she did want to give credit to the councillors. She knew that most of her teachers doubted her mother. The police had even arrived at their home on the fourth day having been told Inko was baring her from school.

“Hey, you're in the way.” Izuku turned to find Bakugou behind her. “Who’re you anyway?”

“What, don’t recognize me Kachcan?” Izuku couldn’t help laughing at the look on the blonde's face.

“Deku?” He looked at her like he was trying to pick out the pieces to a puzzle he’d solved before but couldn’t recognise.

“Yep.” She popped the P and watched as Katsuki Bakugou’s brain short circuited. Her counselor and Deepdive had done wonders to her confidence but both agreed on one thing when they thought she couldn’t hear. Bakugou needed help. “Missed me?”

Katsuki remained silent, simply staring at her like a guppy might. Then again, Izuku mused, it wasn’t everyday a classmate vanished for a week and showed back up as a girl. She jumped when the bell rang and bolted towards the school, launching through the doorway before the boys had so much as moved.

The day went mostly uneventful, the teacher reintroduced her, told her to take a seat. The girl gave her odd looks and the boys just glared at her as usual. The thing that made class so odd was Bakugou’s silence through it all. It was strange not hearing any barbed responses form him throughout their shared classes.

It wasn’t until lunch when a problem would arise. Izuku sat down alone, in the spot she usually did. The crowd of boys that followed Bakugou everywhere came up to her, as they usually did. Bakugou wasn’t with them, which wasn’t usual. Izuku looked at the first one and continued to eat.

“Hey Deku, what’s this I hear about getting a quirk?” She ignored him as she jot down notes in her book, her lunch still in hand. The boy seemed agitated. “Hey we’re talking to you.”

“Whatever man.” One of the others scoffed at her continued silence. The temporary ringleader continued to grow annoyed with her. “No matter what it is she’s still just a useless Deku. Let’s just go.”

“No, not until she admits it.” The leader says. “I want her to tell us that she’s still the same Deku, just now with a useless pathetic quirk that turned her into a girl. Honestly that kind of quirk is worse than not having one.”

Izuku did pause at that. She set her pencil and lunch down and looked the ringleader in the eye, the purple around her iris glowing and slowly encased in her iris’s entirely. Izuku let neon light begin to build in her hands only to blink and jump back in shock as an explosion went off in the middle of the table.

Standing on the other side of the table was Katsuki Bakugou, his hand still smoking above the new scorch mark he’d put on the table. His glae not aimed at Izuku but rather the boys antagonizing her. Smoke rose from his other hand.

“The _fuck_ did you just say?” The lunch room went silent, everyone staring at Bakugou now. Even the girls who’[d been looking on with pity looked like they had no idea who to side with.

“Bakugou I was just telling this Deku-”

“Shut up.” Katsuki said. His anger clearly reached a boiling point. “Making fun of someone for not having a quirk is one thing when the teachers do it, but making fun of someone for what their quirk did to them?”

“I-I was just doing what I thought-”

“Fuck off.” No one moved. Bakugou growled and they scrambled away. Izuku looked down at her food as Bakugou took a seat across from her.

“Thank you.” She said quietly several minutes later. Bakugou scoffed and leaned back in his seat.

“They’re stupid, just a bunch’a… extras. Don’t know what they’re talking about.” Bakugou said, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye and noting the way she smiled a little at his words. “Sides, Auntie Inko could kick All Might’s ass, nothing pathetic about a quirk that makes you a girl.”

* * *

_After that things changed. For the next six years me and Katsuki were inseparable. We trained together, hung out, I even got him into gaming. At school I was an outcast by force still, till the Deku who refused to use their quirk but eventually Katsuki came up with a new nickname for me, one I liked much more and I returned the favor._

* * *

“Oi loser, hurry up or we’re gonna be late!” Katsuki Bakugou called out, his hands were in his pockets as he stood in Midoriya's living room. Izuku came running from her room as a blur of neon light just barely stopped in front of him. “Bout time.”

“Aw come on Smokes, you know it takes me longer to get ready.” The two of them had grown considerably in six years, each getting taller and more muscular, although Bakugou remained taller. Izuku looked even more like the character she’d selected years ago.

“Whatever Fetch, we need to do high school applications today.” Katsuki shouldered his bag and turned to leave. “I’d rather not be late.”

“Better hold on then.” Izuku scooped the boy into her arms and grinned. Katsuki immediately voiced his complaints, loudly. Izuku laughed and ran forward, little more than a trail of neon light.

* * *

_… Alright fine so the names might be a little familiar but Katsuki has only played First Light. Little did we know at the time just how much that day would change, and how important our it would be not just for us._

_Oh, did I forget to mention, this is the story of how we became the pillars of society. All of us._


	2. The Eighth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to commenters.  
> Writing_Stress: I have a hard time finding aro/ace rep so I just write it.  
> Noxu: Actually coming up with the quirk took way longer than making the plot to this.

Izuklu leaned back in her chair, a tiny dot of neon light at the end of her finger as she watched the way it moved. Her teacher was talking about high school applications and the forms they needed to fill out. He loudly announced that he knew the entire class wanted to be heroes and noise erupted around her. Izuku looked at Katsuki and smirked.

“Don’t lump me in with these extra’s teach. None of them stand a chance at UA.” Katsuki said, his usual angry tone bleeding through his words. The class watched as he leaned back and put his feet up.

“Of course Bakugou will get into UA! He’s got a perfect quirk for a hero.”

“Oh yes, Midoriya, you were planning to apply for UA too right?” Izuku didn’t miss the near malicious look in her teacher's eye. The school staff had never liked her and it only got worse after Katsuki’s bullying as a kid was forced onto his record.

“Midoriya? With just those useless lights.” Several students burst out laughing at that, Izuku simply shrugged and Katsuki looked angry. One student said something he’d come to regret quickly.

“Deku’s gotta learn her place somehow, maybe this will be it.” Katsuki’s desk was covered in smoke at that.

“What was that?” Katsuki glared at the class. Several shut up at that. Even the teacher knew not to say anything to Katsuki, not when he was angry. The remainder of class went uneventfully, Katsuki leaving before Izuku to wait outside the school as per usual.

“Hey Deku.” She looked up to see the kid with extendable fingers. One of the few members of class who’d never learned not to mess with her.

“Is this something you’d regret?” Izuku said. She watched as they all stopped. Izuku rolled her eyes. “Whatever, leave me alone.”

Izuku pushed past and walked out of the classroom. She met Katsuki at the front gate of the school, waiting for her as per usual. The two of them had spent every day for six years walking home together. Sometimes they’d take to the rooftops and use it as a chance to train. Katsuki would use his explosions to make the journey faster and Izuku would try learning actual parkour.

It rarely worked out that way, Light Speed running was just so much more effective.

“They're still giving you trouble, Fetch?”

“Eh, you know how it is. Idiots never learn right Smokes?” Izuku shrugged. “Let’s just head home.”

“Just walking today?” Izuku nodded and the two set out on their way. Laughing and joking all the way, even as they passed into a tunnel they remained loud and boisterous. Neither noticed the shuttling of the sewer cover until a sea of green slime overtook Izuku’s body. Struggling she looked around, trying to figure out why she couldn’t get out.

“You’ll do, I guess. Need some type of skin suit to get out of here after all.” She made eye contact with the creature holding. The villain grinned at her.

“Get the fuck off her!” Katsuki let loose a series of small explosions, struggling to hit the villain without hitting Izuku leading to little to no effect. The villain still growled in pain but didn’t budge. Izuku was starting to feel her throat burning as she struggled for air.

“DON’T WORRY!”

“Shit!” the Villain yelled.

“BECAUSE i AM HERE!” Izuku’s world went black. What felt like seconds later she woke up groggily, Katsuki sitting off to the side and leaning over her stood the symbol of peace himself, All Might. ”AH, good to see that you are okay! Sorry it took me so long to come to your aid, miss.”

“A-all Might can you- oh.” Izuku held her notebook in hand. “You already did.” 

“Ah ha. Yes of course. Now that I see your okay I must be going.” All Might said. He crouched low and got ready to jump.

“No wait I have a question to ask you!” Izuku surged forward and All Might jumped. The area was silent for a moment before Katsuki sighed. He stood and began walking away.

“Guess I’ll walk home alone then.” Katsuki said. He leaned back and laughed. “Stupid Fetch, always acting before thinking.”

Meanwhile in the air All Might caught sight of the pink and green haired girl clutching onto his leg. Izuku stared down at the city below, she had been up high before but not this high. The small difference in height changed the view way more than she thought.

“Hey Kid! What are you doing!” Izuku looked up at All Might and saw the building he was going to land on. Izuku let go and her hands shot to her side, neon light and energy flowing down to form a sort of bubble around her feet as she glided down to the building.

“All Might! I’m really sorry about that, it’s just you’re my favorite hero and I have a question I need to ask and I didn’t know if I’d get a chance to.” Izuku took a breath and paused as she heard All Might laughing.

“Well then, go on.” All Might said, Izuku never noticed the slight sense of nervousness that eminated from the hero.

“Is it possible for someone with a pathetic quirk to be a hero?” Izuku said. Even with her mother and Katsuki’s reassurance she was never able to really shake her classmates' words. Maybe hearing it from the number one hero would make it sink in properly. She looked up to find some lanky blonde man there.

“Wha- Who are you?” Izuku’s hands and arms lit with neon light. The swirl of purple bathing the area in a dim glow. “And why are you impersonating All Might?”

“No kid, this is just my true form. Or at least it has been for the past five years.” All Might slid down the wall and lifted his shirt to reveal the scar on his side. “Five years ago I got into a fight with a villain that did this to me. So I can tell you that if you think your quirk is pathetic you’ll never make it, no matter how many people disagree with you.”

All Might stood and made his way towards the door heading back down. He paused at the door, he could tell the girl's quirk was far from p[thetic so there must be something else going on. All Might looked back.

“And kid from what I saw your quirk is far from pathetic. Just be careful if you do choose to be a hero.” All Might opened the door and walked down the stairs. Around half way down he pat his pockets and nearly panicked at the lack of the bottles he felt. An explosion went off in the distance. “There’s no chance that isn’t involved is there?” 

Izuku heard the explosion and snapped her gaze to it. If it was the slime villain again that would mean All Might had dropped him, and an explosion almost always meant Katsuki. Izuku glanced down and noticed the slight soot mark on the roof, that would explain why the air here felt so energized.

Izuku took a couple steps back before rushing forward in Light Speed. She hit the bubble of neon above the mark and burst even faster forward. Photon Jumping over the railing she let a whoop of excitement as the neon enveloped her. Izuku took note of where the explosions were and dashed through the air, taking a second between her first and second dash to orientate by hovering.

“Come on Smokes, where are you.” Izuku turned while hovering after her second dash. She paused and cut her hover once she saw him. Gathering energy in her body, Izuku smiled. “Gotta look up!”

The villain looked up just in time to see her start to drop. Izuku hit the ground hard, a wave of neon bursting out in all directions once she had. The heroes jumped back, likely assuming another villain even as Izuku stood up. The villain had moved away from her after her drop attack.

“You again!” Izuku smiled and yanked her backpack off, with a quick spin she threw it at the Villain. Izuku ran forwards, careful to stay out of Light Speed and yanked the smile away from Katsuki’s mouth. “Using your quirk’s a crime! They’ll come after you next!”

Izuku rolled her eyes and shared a look with Katsuki. Doctor Takemi had gotten her a license to use her quirk for transit after noting that not using her neon for long periods left her jumpy. Izuku went to punch the villain in the eye only for a gust of wind to blow the villain apart and cause it to rain. All Might was standing behind Katsuki.

The other heroes in the air chastised Izuku’s recklessness while also thanking her for helping. While the area and situation wasn’t going to let Backdraft and Mt. Lady do much Kamui Woods and Death Arms though simply lacked the tools needed. Together the two heroes might have been able to help but Izuku wasn’t sure they would have been able to solve the situation.

“We’ll let you off with a warning for quirk use this time, but that’s your one chance kid.” Kamui Woods said, Izuku feigned innocence.

“What quirk use?” Izuku said, Kamui Woods looked at her. “Alright fine, I’m licensed for transport use.”

“And the attack?” Kamui Said. Izuku faltered briefly, sky drops weren’t technically involuntary but she hadn’t hit anyone.

“Didn't mean to?” Izuku said, trying to seem as adorable and innocent as possible. “Sometimes it just happens when I fall from high up.”

“Not buying it kid, again, this is a warning.” Kamui Woods said and Izuku nodded. The hero sighed and turned away, talking to the other heroes and prompting Izuku to back away. Izuku figured that meant she was off the hook.

“Fucking dip, let’s go Fetch.” Katsuki turned to walk away and Izuku blurred to his side. The pro heroes barely react. Mt. Lady blinked at the purple lights and followed their trail to Izuku.

“Uh, that’ll fade in a few.” She and Katsuki turned to walk off. The heroes were quickly swarmed by the media and Izuku noted how All Might was nowhere to be seen. The two made it about half way home before they started talking.

“Didn’t need your help.” Katsuki muttered. Izuku laughed.

“Sure Smokes, should I leave you to suffocate next time?” Izuku said. She leaned away from her friend and frowned. “You know I can’t do that.”

“I’m supposed to protect you, how the fuck can I do that if your haveing to run in to save my ass?” Katsuki said. Angry sparks popped in his hands. “Did you see that today? I couldn’t do anything, I was basically dead weight.”

“I’m not some damsel Smokes, you know that.” Izuku said, growing at her friend. “And even All Might needs help sometimes.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Katsuki said, fear and anger evident in his voice. “The first time that slime villain showed up I couldn’t do shit. You may be able to tank my strongest blast but that would have killed you!”

“I know! Sometimes we get lucky, other times we don’t.” Izuku said. “All that matters is that you tried to help.”

“Am I interrupting?” The Izuku spun on her heel and Katsuki stepped out from behind her. All Might coughed once after they had turned to him. “I could come back later.”

“All Might! No wait! Now’s fine.” Izuku said, stumbling over her words. Katsuki rolled his eyes and shrugged. All might let out a laugh. “How’d you get away from the media anyway?”

“I have plenty of practice with escaping the media.” All Might announced. “Now than young… I never did get your name but nonetheless I need to talk to you.”

“Can’t we talk here? I mean I’d probably tell Smokes anyway.” Izuku turned her head slightly to Katsuki before realization hit her. “Oh, my name is Izuku Midoriya.”

“I suppose one additional-” All Might transformed back into his skeletal like form with a cough of blood. “Person won't be too much of a problem.”

“What the fuck?” Katsuki stared at the frail man, completely lost. All might wiped the blood from his face and offered reassurances to Izuku that he was okay, and that it was normal. “In what way is that normal!?”

“For me I mean, since my injury five years ago.” All Might said dismissively, in a way that only someone who spent five years coughing up blood could. Katsuki simply stared at him, utter bafflement clear on his face. “Onto why I came here, Izuku Midoriya today you asked me if someone with a pathetic quirk could become a hero.”

Izuku glanced to the side and could see the anger building on Katsuki’s face.

“I can tell you with certainty, your quirk is far from pathetic. But in answer to your question I told you that no, if you believed your quirk to be pathetic you couldn’t be a hero.” All Might grinned at her. “You demonstrated that even if you thought your quirk was pathetic you have what it takes to be a hero. That is why today I want to make an offer to you.”

Izuku stared in shock as power fathered in All Might’s hand. The hero’s hair whipped back in an unseen wind as he spoke, colours flared to life in his hand and Izuku marveled at the energy for a moment.

“My quirk is hailed as one of the greatest mysteries there is but today I want to tell you the truth.    
My quirk is called One For All, a sacred torch passed from one holder to another, I am the eighth.” All Might closed his fist and the power flowed ever harder. Whipping leaves off the street and dust into the air. “And I want to offer you the chance to be the ninth.”

Izuku watched as the power around All Might died down, she could almost feel the quirk just out of reach. On the verge of accepting Izuku paused. All Might had said her quirk wasn’t pathetic but how could she ever escape that idea if she just took a better one? How could she do that to herself?

* * *

_ I didn’t know it yet, couldn’t know it, but in that moment I made the choice irrelevant. How could I ever truly think my own quirk was pathetic while giving up my chance at having All Might’s quirk? In that spit second I made a choice that would forever alter the course of my life, of history. _

_ I made a choice and broke a cycle. One symbol of peace was never enough and unknowingly or not I had just ensured there wouldn’t ever be just one. _

* * *

“I-” Izuku gulped and cleared her throat. “I’m sorry All Might but I can’t accept that. If you think my quirk isn’t pathetic how could I ever choose to take on another?”

“Good.” All Might lowered his hand and both Izuku and Katsuki balked. “That kind of attitude will carry you far. One For All isn’t something to take lightly and knowing the value of your own quirk is far more important.”

“What?” Izuku and Katsuki said at the same time. All Might smiled down at them even as more blood leaked from his mouth.

“Don’t think this means you're off the hook.” All Might said. “I still plan to oversee your training, can’t let such promising hopefuls fall to the side. Perhaps I can get your help in finding someone else to succeed me and take on One For All.”

“Of course we will.” Izuku said, smiling brightly.

“We will?” Katsuki said only to grunt as Izuku elbowed him. “We will.”

“Fantastic! Meet me at Dagobah beach tomorrow morning to start training.” All Might smiled and turned to walk off on his own. Katsuki and Izuku shared a look and continued on their way home.

Later that night Izuku collapsed into her bed, having changed into a tank top and pajamas. She smirked at the assortment of neon signs on her walls and lifted her hand. A green leaf on one wall dimmed as Izuku drew the neon out of it and into her hand. She watched the energy shift from green to purple and orange. “Ten months. UA better be ready.” Izuku smirked as all her neon signs flickered slightly. “Cause I’m coming.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember, children are stubborn and unreasonable. They absolutely would continue to bully someone even if their primary method was proven wrong.
> 
> I only know this because my bully loved going on about how slow I was, I beat him in every race that ever occurred at school and was the only one to finish the 1500 M one year. Bullies are weird y'all.


	3. The Ninth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to comenters:  
> MRU911  
> Lxckyshell  
> ElliotThePunk

Izuku was almost giddy as she stood at the beach All Might had sent them. There were a few neon signs that she could see, some were even intact and she was hoping to snag them. Katsuki looked around the beach, taking note of the way the trash and the pathways that seemed to exist.

“AH HA! Knew I’d see you two here.” All Might’s tiny form said as he walked up. He stood between the two and gestured at the heaps of trash. “My original plan was to have my successor clean this so their body would be able to handle One For All.”

“That makes sense, I mean there’s no way a normal person could handle throwing a punch as hard as you do.” Izuku rolled her shoulders and began walking forward. “One problem though All Might.”

Izuku crouched down and placed her hands on the underside of a car and lifted. The car’s wheels left the ground with ease as she heaved it up and over her head like one might with a heavy textbook. She smirked and let it drop back to the ground.

“I’m a bit too strong for a junkyard.” Izuku gave a cocky grin. All Might marveled at the mostly intact car she’d lifted. All Might thought it over and smiled, he could work with that.

“Well then I suppose combat ability is where you need work.” All Might said and Katsuki grinned at Izuku. Izuku for her part looked sheepish.

“Oh yeah, can fire neon from her hands and couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn.” Kartsuki’s grin only grew at Izuku’s protest. All Might simply shook his head.

“Well we can work on that, having a dedicated range option is good.” All Might laughed. “You have no idea how much more simple my early fights would have been.” 

“Right then precision training then. Good luck Fetch.” Katsuki grinned at his friend even as she looked dejected. Izuku quickly recovered and let her power flow out over her hands. Pink and purples tones lit up around her. All might grinned and together the three ventured into the heap of garbage, each with their own idea about how this would go.

Within the hour All Might had jury rigged some type of firing range together and Izuku stood behind a short wall of trash. Izuku lifted one hand, aimed and fired a neon bolt. The blast sailed true right through a target block, just not the target itself.

“Yeah Smokes was right, my aim’s not the best.” Izuku rubbed the back of her head. All Might chuckled. “Funny I know, you’d think neon light would be more precise but…”

“Oh no it wasn’t that.” All might said, still chuckling. “It’s just you claim to have poor aim but your shot went exactly where you were aiming. It looks like your shooting as if your attacks were physical but wasn’t it you who told me they were-”

“Light.” Izuku said. “Yeah but hows that- oh.”

Izuku turned and fired three shots. As the light died down she saw that all three targets had been hit dead center. Izuku smiled and whipped around firing another shot. She knocked a microwave down.

“It’s light! There is no drop to account for!” Izuku excitedly fired several more shots. “How did I miss that?”

“Sometimes an outside perspective is needed.” All Might continued to watch Izuku for a time, eventually finding her success to be true. Once he had done so All Might moved on and tried to find Katsuki, eventually locating him trying to use his explosions to hover.

Together the three would return to the beach day after day. Katsuki discovered that he couldn’t hover well bhut moving was ridiculously easy while Izuku found that through training she was earning Abigail Walker’s ability upgrades. She could fire longer bursts than before and found her accuracy improving.

They’d go on for a few weeks of just practice before anything changed. All Might announced one day that he was certain he’d found his successor. Katsuki grumbled something about adding onto their group while Izuku congratulated him.

“We’re sure about this Fetch?” Katsuki said, Izuku shrugged and pulled her green zip-up hoodie on over her tank top. The two turned and left the junkpile as they 

“We can’t take all of All Might’s time and not let him find someone for One For All.” Izuku bounced to infront of him and walked backwards. “Nine generations Smokes, that’s a long time.”

“So says the conduit.” Katsuki says and has to suppress a laugh at the look on her face. “Whatever, Auntie Inko said she was making your favorite tonight.”

“Sweet!” Izuku blurred in a circle around him. “Let’s go then!”

Izuku and Katsuki rushed the rest of the way, a playful race that both knew Izuku could end in an instant. Neither were aware of it but their powers were growing far faster than they could know, if not for how it typically resides behind her head Izuku may have noticed the return of a blinking blue screen. A simple message flashing on it.

_ Connection scan complete. Subject Abigail Walker biosignature locked. _

* * *

“Young Midoriya, young Bakugou.” All Might said. “I’d like to introduce you two to Mina Ashido, earlier this week I witnessed her do exactly what you did young Midoriya.”

“Hi-”

“Holy shit your pink!” Izuku flashed forward in a cloud of neon. “Are you the one Doctor Takemi mentioned?”

“I’d guess.” Ashido said. She waved slightly to Katsuki who shrugged. “I mean she did say later there was a girl with some neon power and wait that was you?”

“Yep. Izuku Midoriya.” Izuku grinned and held her hand out.

“Just call her Fetch.” Katsuki slammed a hand onto her head. Izuku groaned as he ruffled her mostly pink hair. He quickly yanked her into a headlock and made it worse. Mina giggled at the pair.

“Siblings?” She asked, Izuku blinked at her and smiled even as she tried to force Katsuki off her.

“No, may as well be though.” Izuku said. “You can call me Fetch though. This is Smokes.”

“Do not call me that.” Katsuki growled out as he released Izuku. “Names Katsuki Bakugou.”

“Well it’s great to meet you, I hope we can become great friends.” Mina Said. She smiled at them in a way that made both the other teens have to grin back. Katsuki rolled his eyes and waited for the inevitable question, it never came.

“So,” Katsuki began weeks later. “You knew who she is but no questions?”

“Nope.” Mina said, setting down the washing machine she’d lifted. “Not the sort of thing you ask you know. Sure I have some idea but with the questions I’ve gotten about my skin I know better.”

“Good.” Katsuki said. The two continued in silence. “You know she’s going to give you some nickname right?”

“Counting on it.” Mina grinned. Months would pass for them, the three teens working and improving all the while. Izuku’s missile barrages had finally hit the scale that Abigail’s did in-game and she couldn’t help showing off all the time. Katsuki was having an easy time flying through the air lately and Mina was nearly strong enough for One For All.

At one point they decided to take a day to spar. A makeshift arena set into the piles of trash. Izuku had tossed her hoodie to the side and cracked her knuckles. Katsuki flexed his hand and let a couple explosions pop. Mina rolled forward under the first neon bolt fired by Izuku.

Izuku blurred forward, Katsuki barely escaping the wave of energy that blasted from her hands as she arrived. One in the air Katsuki corrected his movements and surged behind the girl. Katsuki grinned and let loose an explosion into her back while Mina skated around and threw acid at the pair. Izuku grinned, barely fazed by the explosion.

“Not gonna cut it!” Izuku said, bursting into a cloud and rushing behind Katsuki. Reforming, she sent out a stasis wave and Katsuki found himself involuntarily in the air. An explosion sent him tumbling far further than he intended and a neon bolt crashed into his shoulder as he moved. Mina answered Izuku’s attack with a punch to her side, enough acid to lightly burn the area on her hand.

That acid would probably have killed anyone else but that wasn’t the point. Izuku glared and ran to the other side of the clearing. She skidded to a halt and grinned. She Photon Jumped and hovered in the air, unleashing a full burst down at Mina from an angle Mina couldn’t counter. Katsuki recovered, the purplish bubble around him fading and he launched at Izuku.

Izuku cut her thrusters and dropped to the ground, finding herself having to dash backwards as Mina closed in. Izuku frowned even as the pair came closer, she sighed. Izuku rushed forward and jabbed at Mina three times before launching up and slamming back into the ground.

“Alright alright!” Mina said laughing. “None of us can win without severely hurting the others way more than we’re allowed.”

“Yeah. Definitely.” Izuku swiped what was left of Mina’s acid off her side and flicked it to the side, she blinked as it melted a hole in a chunk of rusty metal. “Really Psych?”

“Like anything less would even register for you.” Katsuki scoffed. He rolled his shoulder and looked at the scorched holes in his shoulder. The three of them moved back to their starting positions. They decided to try and spar powerless.

* * *

By the time the UA entrance exam rolled around Izuku could be seen with her hoodie tied around her waist more often than not, Mina would be clearing more in a day than she used to in a week and Katsuki had ease in the air, becoming dominant in it. The trio of friends sat on the beach and stared at the pile of rubble and trash sitting up near All Might’s truck. Izuku’s green and purple dyed tank top the brightest part of the group.

“So Psych, how do you feel?” Izuku punched Mina’s shoulder as she talked. Mina stared at the trash pile as the three waited on All Might’s arrival. Mina laughed, nearly hysterically, she still couldn’t believe it.

“I can’t believe we’re here.” Mina said. “I mean it took way more effort to maintain this and my dancing but I just… it’s-”

“Like everything is about to change.” Katsuki said. He leaned back on his elbows and grinned. “It better change. We’re going to UA soon, top three at the entrance exam?”

“Wanna bet who gets first?” Izuku said, Mina and Katsuki snorted and laughed.

“Not a chance Fetch, we all know who’s getting first.” Mina said, laughing even as Izuku pouted.

“We’ve played First Light Fetch, we know what you can do.” Katsuki said. They all heard the open and closing of a truck door. All Might walked up to the railing and leaned over it to look at the three friends. Mina smiled and watched as All Might came down to her.

“Mina Ashido you’ve done well, better than I planned even.” All Might said, looking at the perfectly cleaned beach.

“Not that hard with these two pushing me forward.” Mina said, still grinning from ear to ear.

“Which means you've more than earned this torch.” All Might held out a single hair. “Now eat this!”

“Wha-” Mina said, surprised, making her lean back. Izuku let out a loose laugh. Mina took the hair and did as instructed. All Might smiled at her.

“Good now you have three hours so I’d get going.” Izuku took off with a Photon Jump, landing next to All Might’s truck before rushing through a neon cloud and dashing home as a streak of purple light.

“So uh, she does know neon doesn’t glow purple right?” Mina Said, Katsuki laughed slightly and rolled his eyes.

“You’ve known us for ten months and now you're asking?” Katsuki said, Mina shrugged. “But yeah she does, we got a sample tested, it’s neon.”

“Weird.” Mina said. “I kinda thought she just didn’t know it was xenon that made a purple light.”

“Why do you know that?” All Might said. “Just seems like an odd piece of knowledge.”

“Thought maybe it had something to do with aliens, you know, xeno.” Mina shrugged as she spoke. The three continued to sit there for a short time before Mina jumped to her feet. “Gotta go!”

Katsuki and All Might watched her run off for a moment before Katsuki launched himself off in his own direction. All Might was left standing on the beach by himself, taking in the fresh morning air with a grin. He felt like the three would do well, no not just well, better than any before them.

“I look forward to watching your stories unfold.” He said, no one was around to hear. ALl Might looked at the horizon with his trademark smile. “And the way you will change the world.”

Izuku paused outside UA’s main building, simply marveling at the fact that she was there. Her purple trail of neon still fading. The girl hadn’t even bothered to go home, instead running straight to the school. There were few students milling about, Izuku chose a piler and leaned back to wait for her friends, igureing she’d get a half hour of peace at least. Izuku watched students coming in for a short time when a brown haired girl caught her eye. Izuku blinked as the girl walked.

“Oh wow.” Izu8ku said. She watched the girl for several more moments and jumped when a hand landed on her shoulder. “What!”

“Got lost looking at a pretty girl?” Katsuki said, his grin near malicious. “Come on Fetch, what are you seeing?”

“The prettiest girl in the world.” Izuku said, looking back at said girl. Katsuki grinned at her and Mina scoffed.

“Have you not looked in a mirror?” Mina said. Izuku blinked, of course she had. “Nevermind, let’s just get to the test.”

Izuku looked at Katsuki only to find no answer. She quickly fell into step next to them, together they crossed the threshold. Izuku had always imagined it would feel incredible to stand on UA ground but now that she was here it was strangely empty. It held the potential of that great feeling she’d thought it’d hold and yet none of it was there.

Once in the auditorium things changed. It was like an electric buzz in the air. Izuku closed her eyes, took a deep breath and let her senses pulse. The innate energy of those around her flickering into her vision briefly while a nearby neon sign glowed like the moon on a cloudless night. Today was the day everything they’d worked so hard for came to be.

Unknown to the three, a small figure watched from an office window as they entered the building. Principle Nezu, a large rodent of unknown type and cloudy origin, made it a point to read the file of every applicant every year. Oftentimes few of those files offered anything of note, far too often those files offered far too little of note. The odd time a file offers something but holds nothing.

“So they are friends.” Nezu mused. Turning back to his desk he looked down at the file sitting on it. “That makes this ever stranger. Why mention his bullying of Midoriya without a single incident being reported?”

Nezu continued to look the otherwise spotless record over before reaching out for his phone and dialing a phone number. The phone rang twi9ce before it was answered, a male voice on the other end.

“Yes hello is a Mitsuki Bakugou present?” Nezu waited. “Yes of course. This is Principle Nezu of UA wondering about the oddity on your son's record, it says here that she insisted on it being there?”

Nezu listened as the phone changed hands. He listened to the angry words of a mother trying to do the best she could for her son, even though what he wanted went against that. He listened to a tale of a boy demanding that information that could ruin his dreams be put on his record. He listened to a story about a school fighting her every step, a school desperate for their perfect student to have a clean record.

All the while Nezu took notes and planned. He ended the call with an idea, a vision of what to do and what he needed. Nezu looked down at his notes and frowned.

“How?” Nezu said. He turned to look out at the horizon. “How could anyone believe this to be okay?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Weird thing I heard often in school, people responding to a friend calling someone else pretty or whatever with "Have you looked in a mirror." Thought it was adorable, but also may tie into something later, so many plans so little time to set up and all.
> 
> See you next week.


	4. Trials

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to commenters:  
> Asterin_Hydra  
> MRU911  
> ShadowyMyths

Izuku stretched her arms out over her head, leaning from one side to the other. Her gaze locked firmly on the door to the city, she could sense a single neon sign somewhere deep within the city. Why UA would put that there is beyond her but she’d take advantage of it. As she got ready though Izuku saw something out of the corner of her eye, the girl she’d spotted at the entrance. She hesitantly took a step forward only for another student to get in the way.

“What are you doing?” He said. Izuku noted that he was the same who’d chastised her for muttering in the auditorium. “That girl looks like she is trying to concentrate, why would you jeopardize her test? Are you taking this seriously at all?”

“Woah okay buddy how about we take a step back and stay the fuck out of my business?” Izuku said, almost stopping the curse even as she said it. She wasn’t one for swearing often but even she admitted the words were well, words. The boy blinked at her and Izuku had to grin at him.

“That kind of language is unbecoming of a-”

“Yeah I don’t care, screw off and let me be.” Izuku turned away and looked back at the door, any moment they would slide open and she would take off. Izuku let light dance in her palm as she planned how she’d do this. The doors started to open and Izuku leaned forward, waiting for them to be as wide as her.

Within seconds she was off, a streak of purple light blasting past other test goers and through the small gap. Izuku struck feet first against a one pointer, instantly destroying it and causing it to explode, taking out another pair in the process. She kicked off another and gathered power for a Commit Drop. As she slammed into the ground and wiped out another trio of robots Present Mic came over the speakers and the others rushed forward.

A few paused at the carnage she left in her wake. Izuku turned and rushed up the side of a building Izuku perched at the top and looked out at the cityscape. Izuku dropped off the edge, letting gravity carry her onto a robot. A stasis wave caught several robots and Izuku fired a series of bolts to finish them off. A salvo of missiles taking out another crowd. A robot out of the corner of her eye caught Izuku’s attention, she fired a series of five bolts and lifted the boy it was over to his feet.

“You can’t tense up like that man.” Izuku said. “Especially in a real villain attack.”

“Tch, not like my quirk even works on robots.” The purple haired boy said. Izuku frowned.

“Doesn’t really change my point.” Izuku said. She shrugged as he scoffed and turned away. Izuku turned in her own direction and ran. The test was on a time limit and while she’d lost track of time she wouldn’t be taking any chances.

* * *

“Got some good ones this year.” A voice said. Nezu had to agree, the top ten seemed to have quickly stabilized, for as little as that may matter later. Scores were quickly into the twenties and continuing into the thirties, although the scores everyone was looking at were the ones already in the fifties and forties.

“Yes we do. Some marvelous quirks I see.” Nezu laughed as the feed showed Izuku Mdoriya clearing a street with a barrage of missiles. “Quiet the spread too.”

“Things like invisibility, glad to see some people with non-combat quirks actually thinking on their feet.” A scruffy black haired man said. He looked from one monitor to another. “To people using enhanced senses to plan accordingly.”

“I’m more concerned with Nezu’s top picks for your class Aizawa. They’re all pretty much unstoppable.” Another man said.

“I can see that Kan.” Aizawa said, his eyes trailing the screens. “What exactly is that girl's quirk?”

“The one sending out those energy blasts? According to her file, something called ‘Character Select’, strange.” A woman said. “That doesn’t explain her abilities at all.”

“Still though, several students are helping others along the way, some going so far as to damage their own potential scores.” All Might said, standing in the background he wasn’t one of the judges. “Do you see that to this degree often?”

“Not nearly this much, half the top ten would have higher scores if they were more focused on themselves.” Aizawa said. He watched for a time. “I will say I’m disappointed in some of our applicants without combat quirks this year.”

“I thought you said the test was irrational?”

“It does a poor job of weeding out those with combat quirks that meet no other requirement, but if you don’t have a combat quirk you have to get creative.” Aizawa’s gaze flickered from screen to screen. “Real villains know the quirks of many heroes, being able to fight when your quirk is useless isn’t just important, it's a necessity.”

“Are we sending in the arena trap yet?” a man with what looked to be an excavator on his head said. “We’re closing in on the end of the exam.”

“Send it out.” Nezu said. The tiny principle let out a laugh as the button to release the 0-pointer was pushed. He laughed all the way as the carnage went on. Perhaps this year there would be students trying to take it on.

In other years many had tried, many more had been injured. It got so bad that the teachers started labeling it as little more than an obstacle, as many would say, a hero needed to know when to fold.

Izuku Midoriya paused down on the battlefield as the ground shook. Turning she saw the giant machine wheel across the streets, entire buildings coming down as it rolled through them. Izuku took a look around, checking to see if anyone needed help. She caught sight of a girl under some rubble and looked back to the robot.

Izuku was far from stupid, she knew that being a cloud of light should make her run at light speed, in theory. In practice she just couldn’t get that fast. At this distance she knew that for as fast as she was the robot would reach the girl first, something that couldn’t happen. Setting her feet and rolling her shoulders Izuku prepared to do something she knew she could but never had.

Back in the viewing box panic was starting to set in. Even if they knew the robots wouldn’t kill a student the worry was always there, what if this was the one time they would? Power loaders hand hovered off the off switch just waiting, hoping he wouldn’t need to.

“Power Loader, don’t.” Every head turned to Nezu. the small principal's gaze was locked firmly on a screen showing Izuku. The girl set one foot back and bright her hands together at her side. A spark of neon flared to life between her hands before erupting, the force of the energy pushing her back.

“Holy shit.” Power Loader muttered as he watched the girl let the power build for a moment longer. She twisted and threw the ball out. Purple and blue neon light rushed to the center of the ball even as Izuku surged into the air on jets of neon.

The ball of light struck the 0-pointer and started to pull. Metal twisted and bent towards the center, tearing and shearing the robot apart as it collapsed inwards. Nezu laughed as a blackhole of neon light ripped their giant robot apart and laughed even harder as he noticed it drag several of the smaller robots upwards. Then the ball exploded, sending robot parts to rain down around it.

“That would be why her quirk is called Character Select.” Nezu said. “What we just saw is a rather powerful ability used by the playable character in Infamous First Light.”

“What.” Aizawa said. Others nodded along with him. Nezu simply cackled and All Might watched on the screen as Nezu replayed the footage.

“Oh this will be an interesting year.” Nezu mused, glancing at the scores listed and then back at the screen again. “Aizawa I trust you’ll take the students with greater potential danger as usual?”

“Of course.”

* * *

Izuku stretched her arms out over her head. She felt pretty good about that test, fully confident she would make it in. She was just waiting at the entrance for her friends, the girl she’d noticed before included. Ochako Uraraka was an interesting person, it’d be nice to have another friend.

“Fetch.” Katsuki growled while walking up to her. “Round Face here was just telling me you threw a fucking black hole at the 0-pointer?”

“That is a thing I did.” Izuku confirmed, thinking it better than trying to deny or throw him off. Mina and Ochako laughed behind Katsuki as he continued to glare at Izuku.

“You’ve never done that for a reason what the hell were you thinking!?” Katsuki slammed a fist down on her head. Izuku barely flinched and he continued. “Seriously what the hell?”

“I wasn’t thinking alright?” Izuku said. She groaned as that seemed to make him angrier. “I saw someone in trouble and knew I wasn’t fast enough, so I did what I could.”

“Don’t know Fetch, a black hole sounds a lot like overkill no matter how you slice it.” Mina said, looking thoughtfully towards the sky, a teasing grin spreading as she did so. “How was it?”

“Exhilarating.” Izuku breathed. She sucked in a breath as she looked for the words. “It was like for that single moment I was a god, like nothing could stop me. All I knew was that light and what it meant.”

“Seems arrogant.” Katsuki said. Mina and Izuku scoffed.

“Like your one to talk.” Ochako, their newest addition said. “Mister ‘I scored first even though my friend wiped the battlefield clean in one move’.”

“We’ll see.” Katsuki said. His confidence practically oozing off him, Izuku and Ochako both felt it unearned. Izuku grinned.

“So you think you could take me in a fight? One on one no holds barred?” Izuku grinned as Katsuki looked at her. His eyes moved to her hands then back up.

“Aw come on Fetch, we all know he couldn’t.” Ochako said, her outgoing personality once more trying to move the conversation. “You did just throw a black hole.”

“Shut it Round Face.” Katsuki said. Ozhako laughed at his dismissive tone. Izuku smiled along with her.

“Well with Orbit here that makes four.” Izuku said. She watched Katsuki’s eyes widen. “Guess that means it’s time. Hey Orbit want to come to my place tonight?”

“Orbit?” Ochako said. Mina shrugged and wrapped an arm over Ochako’s shoulders.

“She’s got one for all of us.” Mina said, a wide grin on her face as she looked at Izuku. “Guess she claimed you, so you're stuck with us.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“Ah, you move through the stages of grief quickly.” Mina said. Her words brought a slight amount of worry to Ochako while Izuku laughed sarcastically.

“Oh ha ha, funny Psych, real funny.”

“I know.”

“Whatever, guess you're in Smokes’ group then.” Izuku said. Mina mockingly stuck her tongue out. “So you're stuck with me Orbit.”

“That’s great and all but are we going or not?” Katsuki said. He pounded far closer to annoyed than the angry he tried to sound.

“Want to find out if I can run with three people?” Izuku said, Katsuki immediately started to protest only for Izuku to scoop the three up. “Too late!”

They vanished as a purple streak. A cloud of neon light dashing along streets and up walls straight to Izuku’s home. Meanwhile within the school a different meeting was occurring. Nezu and the collective staff of UA had gathered in their main meeting room.

“As you all know I usually make recommendations for which students go to which homeroom.” Nezu said, many teachers nodded. “That will not be happening this year, the only placements being recommended will come from your colleges, no today I wish to inform you Aizawa of four of your students.”

“Inform?” Aizawa said, a level of tiredness with the situation already clear. “So you're just putting them into my class.”

“Why yes, because in the event they lose control we need to be able to stop them at any point.” Nezu said. He dropped a series of files onto the table and slid the first out. “Leading the group, Shouto Todoroki. Half-hot half-cold, use of flames and ice both with greater control and power than his parents.”

“Makes sense.” Kan said looking through the file. “I can’t really stop him if something goes wrong.”

“Precisely, your restraints aren’t much use with any of the four.” Nezu slid the second file forwards. “Momo Yaoyorozu, creation. Registered weight around four hundred kilos, according to her parents, low.”

“Four hundred? Really, she doesn’t look it.” Power Loader said.

“Her fat stores are far far denser than most people’s.” Nezu grinned at them. “Now then could anyone explain how someone who weighs four hundred kilos and uses her fat stores to create things could make this two tonne war cannon?”

“That’s…” Several teachers began, all of them paused to look at Nezu.

“Onto student three, Mina Ashido, acid.” Nezu slid the next file to Aizawa. “We recovered one of the bots she destroyed. The central circuit board compartment had a hole melted all the way through.”

“Bullshit! Those casings can take the strongest acids in the world without damage.” Power Loader said, his voice rising.

“On top of the strength she showed during parts of the exam.” Aizawa muttered. “This is looking to be a dangerous batch this year.”

“That is why this meeting is happening.” Nezu flipped the final file open. “Izuku Midoriya, character select. While she’s only made one selection it completely altered her genetic structure.”

“Her genetic structure? Nezu it hit everything, muscle mass, density, bone structure, gender.” Midnight flipped the page. “If it’s genetic or even biological it was changed and altered.”

“There’s even unknown genes here.” Present Mic said, he looked over to find Aizawa silent.

“Exactly, her quirk changed everything about her biologically, to the extent that there are no traces of her fathers genetics within her anymore.” Nezu said, laughing lightly. “Her quirk altered her on a genetic level so thoroughly that one of her parents isn’t even related to her anymore.”

“This will be a mess of a year.” Aizawa said. Nezu cackled even as the others read the files over, a small collection of other ones under the table.

“Is this you trying to prove the singularity theory again?” Kan said.

“Trying? Oh no, this is proof. Tell me what do these four have in common?” Nezu said. No one replied. “No? Well then. Firstly they all break conventional rules in ways that no other does, Todoroki’s ability spits in the face of decades of knowledge and studying, either validating the singularity theory or invalidating all our knowledge. Yaoyorozu’s breaks the laws of physics on a permanent basis. Ashido is capable of producing what only exists in movies and Midoriya’s quirk interacts with things that don’t exist.”

“All of their quirks should be impossible is what you're saying.” Aizawa said, still looking the collection of files over.

“Precisely. Nothing like any of them has been seen before. We are on the precipice of an incredible change to the world.” Nezu said, his grin nearing a malicious state. “And I can’t wait to see where it goes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone familiar with InFAMOUS: First Light should have seen that coming, Fetch is easily the most powerful of the three playable characters in the franchise to be honest.


	5. First Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to commenters:  
> MRU911  
> Drakeneo - Foreshadow? I would _never_  
>  Lxckyshell  
> Damian02  
> Hungdom

Izuku leaned back in her chair, her feet crossed on her desk as she talked with Ochako. Things hadn’t exactly gone well when her acceptance had been heard by her old classmates. Far from well actually, if she didn’t know better she’d say some of the girls were going to kill her.

“Midoriya got into UA as well, correct?” Izuku grinned at her teachers words, she cracked her knuckles and shrugged. “How was the entrance exam.”

“Not too hard, I mean I did manage to get a hundred and fifty-eight points.” That had mostly shut her classmates up. There was a hint of panic in the room for the rest of that semester, Izuku loved it.

“You there! Get your feet off the desk.” the blue haired kid interrupted her conversation. Izuku glared at him. “It is disrespectful to our upper-”

“Look I’ll say it again, back off and stay out of my business.” Izuku said. She looked back to continue her conversation only for Katsuki’s laugh to interrupt.

“Won’t tell bullies to go fuck themselves but will tell self righteous assholes?” Katsuki said as he walked to his own seat. He sat down and mimicked his friends own posture. “Where was that spine the past six years, Fetch?”

“Oh bite me.” Izuku laughed. “Like your one to talk Smokes, you just glared at the bullies.”

“Excuse me?” the blue haired kid said. He looked indigent. “I am far from a bully.”

“You're just way too concerned with what others are doing.” Izuku said. “Earnest and caring about rules, that’ll carry you far in heroics, just won't win you brownie points with me.”

“Leave Fetch’s little quirks be and she’s the sweetest girl you’ll ever meet.” Mina said. She bumped shoulders with Izuku as she grinned. Mina’s attitude and general joy is just as infectious as always. “Ain’t that right?”

“Shush you, let me build my reputation before you ruin it.” Izuku teased. Mina laughed and pulled the girl into a sideways hug. “Always with physical affection.”

“Alright everyone to your seats.” A voice said from the doorway. The class scattered as the man in mostly black walked to the font of the room. “Eight seconds. Too long. Put on your gym uniforms and meet me at the training field.”

Izuku was the first one up on her feet. Pausing at the door to flick a quick wave before rushing to the changerooms. By the time the others arrived she was leaning on the wall near the exit door, already changed.

“Bout time.” Izuku said. Mina huffed.

“Quiet you.” Mina said as they all walked in. Izuku rose a hand and walked to one wall, she held her hand in front of the wall and waited. Jirou had one of her jacks in the wall in seconds and nearly gagged moments later. Izuku grinned and a blinding white light erupted, a scream was heard on the other side of the wall.

“Now that that’s done, meet you outside.” Izuku turned on her heel and walked out. The others waited a moment for her footsteps to fade.

“You were right Ashido.” Momo was the first to break the silence. “There is something in her eyes.”

“Right? She can’t see it though, like literally can’t see it.” Mina said. “It’s a little weird to watch neon acid drip from her pupils like that and know that she can’t see it.”

“What? You must be mistaken, it’s more like a lightning storm.” Momo said.

“That’s the strange part, we all see something different.” Ochako said. “To me it’s like a little neon meteor shower, Katsuki sees firecrackers.”

“That is strange.” Momo said. She waited a moment and continued when no one else said anything. “You said her powers are from a game?”

“See that’s the really weird part, the eye thing isn’t in the game. There’s actually a few things that aren’t.” Mina said. She shrugged. “Quirks are weird you know?”

It wasn’t long until they and the rest of the class arrived at the training field. Aizawa looked disappointed in them and reprimanded them for once again taking so long. He rattled on about the school system and it’s backwards ideas that made several of the students look to each other.

“Midoriya, you scored first in the entrance exam, how far can you throw?” Aizawa said. Izuku blinked and laughed nervously.

“I don’t actually know, I can’t turn my enhanced strength off so I wasn’t allowed to take part in that kind of thing.” Izuku said and Aizawa sighed.

“Of course. Bakugou you're up, how far?”

“Sixty seven meters.” Katsuki said, clearly proud of his accomplishment.

“Then try with your quirk.” Aizawa tossed the ball to him and Katsuki grinned. ?He stepped forward into the ring and reared back. Throwing his weight into it he added and explosion and sent the ball sailing into the distance. Aizawa’s screen read out seven hundred five meters. “Seventy percent of a kilometer. Have you seen my point yet? None of you know your real baseline, let’s correct that.”

“Oh it looks like fun.” Ochako said. She practically bounced on her heels. “Finally getting to see what we can actually do? I can’t wait!”

“While I would normally comment about this not being fun.” Aizawa seemed to be thrown off by the second half of Ochako’s statement. “I have been trying to be more receptive to others' thoughts and you’re right. You should absolutely be excited about learning your limits, you can’t break them without knowing them.”

Murmurs broke out, several of them thinking Aizawa originally had something very different to say.

“Let’s get this over with.” Aizawa said and led them over to another section of the field. A short track for the fifty meter dash. Izuku turned and looked her classmates over, trying to assess how things would go.

Katsuki’s explosions would easily carry him through the dash, his flight abilities may not be perfect but had rapidly improved. Mina was set with her acid and one for all, simply skating along with a little extra strength and she’s likely to get first. Ochako’s gravity nullification was only so useful for this, she’d do better than without but it wasn’t a big difference.

No what interested her was their other classmates. How would being invisible help with any of the tests? What about the purple haired kid with the balls on his head? How many people in the class would display something totally unexpected?

Izuku knew the blonde that tended to mix French into his dialog had some sort of stomach lazer. She could come up with many ideas for how to use that, depending on its limits. She was surprised when he jumped and fired the laser to push himself quickly towards the finish. Of course he didn’t quite make it.

“How unfortunate, I can't fire my navel laser for too long you see.” So that was it, he could only fire it off for so long before encountering some problem. Mina who he was against blitzed through the dash as Izuku expected, getting just under two seconds.

Other students got more average times, mostly around the seven second mark. Few expectations existed, Tenya was one of the few to be under four second. Izuku stepped up next to Katsuki and watched as he got down into a ready stance, Izuku just stood there.

“Zero point one two five seconds.” The robotic voice droned within moments of Izuku being told to go. She smiled to herself, quite proud of the speed, still nowhere near her top but she suspected it was the lowest it could go.

Other students went, some caught her attention, the red and blue sparkles in Shouto’s ice catching her eye just like Mina’s energy veins. Another burst of blue and red light caught her eye as Momo pulled solid objects out of her arms, legs, back, anywhere she could really. All three eerily similar. There wasn’t much else of note.

The other events went much the same, the repeated side steps had only one stand out. The grip strength test had the expected results, mostly average. Momo and shoji scored ridiculously high with either multiple arms or a hydraulic vice. Izuku blinked at the flashing five hundred on hers.

The ball throw was where things really shined. Everyone came up with an interesting way to use their quirk. Yuga managed to send the ball well past a hundred meters with his navel laser. Ochako managed infinity with her quirk, completely expected. Momo simply created a cannon and fired it, launching the ball. The cannon netted her almost one and a half kilometers.

Izuku stepped up and tossed the ball upwards, she fired a quick stasis wave and snatched the ball out of the air. Izuku leaned back to judge the area and crouched down ready to start.

_Interference from unknown source detected_

_Searching…_

Izuku blinked at the blue screen in front of her eyes, she had caught glimpses of it over the years but it hadn’t had anything like this since she was eight. She nearly stumbled after the message had popped up and turned wildly to look for this source.

_Searching…_

_Source located_

_Isolating incoming signal_

Just what the hell was going on? What had her quirk apparently found that was making it act up like this. Izuku watched as the blue screen flickered and glitched, the words flickering in and out before her eyes.

_Goal decoded_

_Shut down of primary and secondary quirk effects_

_Scanning...._

_Prime Conduit gene unaffected_

_Replicating…_

Replicating. Her quirk was replicating some part of a conduit gene? Izuku blinked as the words continued.

_Replication successful_

_Assimilating shutdown immunity…_

_Isolating source...._

_Integrating into Prime Conduite power sense_

_Pulsing power sense_

Izuku felt her senses pulse, a few neon signs in the building glowing purple on the edges of her vision but her teacher shined a deep orange-red in front of her. Something about the colour screamed at her, made her take pause. Her friends often lit up green and what she considered an enemy glowed red, this was new.

_Interference identified_

_Shota Aizawa - Teacher_

_Quirk: Likely erasure_

_Deduction: Possibly pro hero-_

“Eraserhead.” Izuku said, the teacher blinked and looked mildly surprised. He looked at Izuku’s smug grin next. “That’s what you did right, erase my quirk? I only know one hero who can do that.”

“You haven’t been trying.” Aizawa said. “At the entrance exam you moved far faster and hit much harder than you have been here.”

“There’s this thing I can do where I spread a bunch of neon clouds out and they linger for a year or so.” Izuku said. Aizawa gestured for her to continue. “There were a couple in the entrance exam and aren’t any here.”

“Right, get on with it then.” Izuku reapplied her stasis field and let her senses pulse. The murky orange-red indicating Aizawa popped up and she crouched down. Activating Light Speed she launched into the air and dashed forward. A quick thruster assisted spin and she threw the ball.

Izuku dashed backwards and fell back into the circle. Turning quickly she fired a single bolt that caught the underside of the ball and carried it just a little further. Izuku looked satisfied as she watched the ball continue to fly. Aizawa turned the phone around to show her once it landed.

“One point two kilometers.” Aizawa nodded as he spoke. “Not bad.”

Izuku beamed even through the rest of the throws, no one coming quiet close to even Katsuki’s seven hundred, except Mina. The other test went mostly normal, some able to get high scores and superhuman results. Aizawa looked unimpressed with most of the results. At the end he brought up the rankings, the top ten looking mostly similar to their placements in the entrance exam.

“Your syllabus is in the classroom, pick it up and then you're dismissed.” Aizawa turned around and paused. “I expect you all to at least know eachothers names tomorrow.”

The class scrambled back to the change rooms and from there to the classroom. Once there they had gathered together, talking amongst themselves about their teachers instructions. Some were sitting on their desks while others were standing around. The classroom quickly became far too stuffy for some of the class.

“That’s it, this sucks.” Mina said, voicing what many had thought. “Let’s go somewhere else. See something a little more fun.”

“I know of this arcade we can go to.” Denki said. “It’s a little loud though.”

“That’s a great idea, for later though.” Ochako added. “I think we need to go somewhere quiet at first.”

“One of the defense attorney's my family hires told me of an out of the way café we can go to.” Momo said, all the attention immediately turned to her. Momo shrunk under their gazes slightly. She told me her sister’s boyfriend lived with the owner.”

“Sounds perfect!” Izuku said jumping to her feet. “Let’s go.”

“Now wait just a moment! School has not come to a close today, we can’t be going anywhere.” Tenya said, chopping the air for emphasis.

“Teach dismissed us, if he was expecting us to stay he shouldn’t have said the day was over.” Katsuki said as he stood as well. “Let’s go, I’ve got nothing better to do.”

The twenty students gathered their things and followed Momo out of the school. None of them paid attention to the murmurs of those who saw them. They laughed and talked the whole way, some sending messages with their phones.

* * *

“You’ve found something?” Nezu said as Aizawa walked into his office. Aizawa looked more tired than usual. He took a seat across from Nezu.

“The four you told me to watch, there’s something there.” Aizawa said. “Each of them have some kind of red and blue light in their quirk, Yaoyorozu emits red and blue light when creating things, Todorki’s ice had a brief sparkle of red and blue. Ashido’s skin glows a slight red and blue when making her strongest acids and when using her strength.”

“And Midoriya?” Nezu said and Aizawa’s demeanor changed.

“When I erased her quirk.” Aizawa said, seemingly thinking over his words. “She looked around, almost curious, and when she looked at me I saw it. That same red and blue light in her eyes, like a reflection.”

“Hm. So the four have something about their quirks in common.” Nezu looked thoughtful as he spoke. There was something he was missing. “Interesting.”

“I sent them off, told them they could go home.” Aizawa said. “Hopefully we can come up with a working theory for this today.”

“That would be fantastic if unlikely.”

* * *

“Welcome to Café Leblanc! My name’s Haru, how may I help you?” The lady behind the counter said. She smiled brightly as they came in, her pink sweater standing out far more than the apron she wore. Momo gestured her classmates in behind her

“This is the place a lawyer recommended?” Katsuki said as he looked at the small room. “Seems a little out of the way.”

“That’s what I like about it.” A woman in a suite said as she turned to face them, a cup of coffee in hand. “Momo, are these your classmates?”

“Yes Niijima, I’d introduce you but we hoped to learn more about each other today.” Momo practically beamed at the older woman.

“Just Sae please, with how often I see your parents it’s easier.” There was a bang upstairs. “And my sister is here at the moment anyway.”

“Stop using the rafters as a pull up bar!” A voice upstairs yelled out. “We bought an actual pull up bar damit!”

The class filtered through and moved to a table in the back corner, crowding together as tightly as they could. Several of them laughed at some unheard joke or other. Once they’d all found seating, weather in the booth or on it they started talking more about themselves. With them together Sae Turned back to Haru.

“Remind you of anyone?” She said with an easy smile. She took another sip from her mug as Haru watched the group for a time.

“It does.” Haru said, she turned back to Sae and reached out for the now empty mug. “Shall I get you another?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next update may be slightly delayed, I move on Friday. Hectic week upcoming as a result.


	6. Battle Test

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to commenters:  
> NeopolitanCubed  
> ElliotThePunk  
> MRU911  
> Mr.M - P5 is involved there but no, absolutely not.

“Man this week’s been tough.” Denki said, stretching his arms out over his head. The rest of the class groaned their agreements. “I wish we could just get to the hero classes.”

“Did you even look at the syllabus?” Kyoka said, one of her jacks whipping out to jab him in the forehead. “We have foundational hero studies today.” 

“We do?” Denki said, he scrambled for his bag. Pulling the syllabus free he looked it over. “Yes!”

“Today’s gonna rock!” Mina said, she grinned and turned to face Izuku. The other pink haired girl smirked at her friend. “So, any ideas on who’s teaching?”

“One or two.” Izuku said, grinning further as Mina deflated. The pink skinned girl practically begged her to share while Izuku kept her grin. Mina almost lept over her desk at the other. 

“Oh come on, please just tell-”

“I AM HERE!” All Might’s distinct voice came from the doorway. “COMING THROUGH THE DOORWAY LIKE A NORMAL PERSON.”

“Sure.” Izuku said. Everyone else silently gasped in awe and screamed in excitement in their heads. Several in the class were nearly salivating, even Tenya was vibrating in place. All Might laughed and hit a button on the desk, a series of cases coming from the wall.

“Get dressed, we’re going to gym gamma for today.” All Might said, his signature smile shining brightly. “The clothes make the hero, so I’m looking forward to seeing yours.”

The class burst forth, grabbing their own cases and rushing out of the room. Izuku once more the first out, before many had even reached their cases. All Might chuckled to himself as he watched them bolt down the halls, even the most level headed of them excited about their training.

“Ah, teenagers never change.” He said to himself in a rare moment of reminiscing. The number one hero followed after his students, making sure to arrive in the gym itself before any of them.

Izuku was the first out of the change room. All Might took her uniform in, her red and black shoes remaining in place alongside the black leggings. The loose green jacket drew attention away from the simple armored top. Glowing line of pink ran around her wrist and ankles. The same glowing pink ran over the armour and along the rest of the suit in accent lines. A simple gas mask hung around her neck, the same neon pink rimming it.

“Hey All Might.” She said, waving at him. All Might was impressed, it was rare for a hero to make such a casual look look so heroic. A pair of ear like tufts on the hood would look almost rabbit like if not for the hood being down, a green tinted visor fashioned like googles pushed her hair up and caused it to bunch together. 

“Very well designed young Midoriya.” All Might watched as pride blossomed over her face and laughed as she tugged lightly on the jacket. Her other classmates came out after wards.

Tenya wore a full armored suit typical of his family. Katsuki was as bombastic as expected, Kirishima had invented a new kind of shirt. Others looked relatively simple, some in rather plain jumpsuits or simply lacking in any equipment. Both Kyoka and Denki looked like they just changed out of their uniform. Ochako had a pink and black bow slung over her back, a last minute addition to her costume courtesy of her friends, and two cases on either leg. Each case holding six arrow shafts rather tightly.

Overall, All Might would think the kids had done alright with their first designs. It was rare to get iconic looks like Best Jeanist or Miruko off the first attempt.

“I can see that you all put plenty of thought into your hero suits.” All Might smiled, watching as they all beamed at him. “While I’m sure you all already have ideas for improvements it’s time for our first exercise.”

“What will we be doing?” Tenya said, flailing one arm in front of him, his helmet under his other. “Will it be simple sparring?”

“No. Today I want to see how you react to not knowing what your opponents are capable of in battle.” All Might said, his answer seemingly settling Tenya. “We’ll be starting with battle training. I will be splitting you into teams of two randomly, villains and heroes.”

“Randomly?” Tenya said, confusion clear.

“It makes sense.” Momo cut in. “As hero’s we won't always have control over who’s around or what tools we have access to.”

“I apologize and applaud such foresight.” All Might blinked as Tenya bowed.

“Yes, as I was saying, villains will have a bomb to protect, if fifteen minuets pass it goes off and they win. Hero’s have to capture said bomb in the time limit. If either team manages to capture both members of the other they win.” All Might finished. “Any questions?”

“Will we be graded on property damage?” Katsuki said, his hand in the air and his gauntlet glistening menacingly.

“Not today as it is the first exercise but it is important to keep such in mind.” All Might said, pride leaking into his voice. “I’ve been informed that that’s a rare question to receive, I’m glad to hear your already thinking about what it means to be a hero.”

No one else expressed any questions and All Might began splitting the classes up. He quickly drew lots, some of the pairings seemed interesting others a little closer to fear inducing. All Might passed lettered balls to each student drawn and then dropped an extra one into two boxes, one labeled villain and the other hero. All Might paused when he realized what two numbers had gone unpulled until the end, eighteen and twenty. He almost gulped.

“Right then. Team E as the heroes and team I as the villains.” All Might watched as Tenya and Katsuki stood and walked to the door for heroes while Hanta and Yuga went to the villain door. “I will alert both teams once ten minuets have passed and then we begin.”

To say it was a massacre would be an understatement. Katuski’s explosions rendered any method of immobilizing him by Hanta useless, while Tenya’s speed made catching him off guard wasn’t going to happen. Yuga was captured quickly and easily while Hanta had some mobility to defend himself; he didn’t last long either. It took barely five minutes to end the match.

“Where did things go wrong?” all Might said, turning to the remainder of the class.

“Trying to fight Smokes and Iida was a bad plan, they should have had one of them distract them and the other go for the bomb.” Izuku said, everyone turns to her. “Combatively they stood no chance but every second counts right? Fastest way between A and B is a straight line after all.”

“Exactly right young Midoriya. Fighting villains is unavoidable but sometimes we need to prioritize one goal over another.” All Might said. He looked over the class. “Take this to heart, the battle is important but more often than not there will be something more important.”

“Next up is team G as the heroes and team A as the villains.” Mina and Denki high fived on their way to the hero door. Kyoka and Mezo made their way to the villain's door. All Might quickly turned back to the monitors. He expected this match to be a little more even than the last, he was wrong.

Kyoka knew what Mina’s strength could do, they’d shared a battleground for the entrance exam. While the setting would limit the more destructive members of the class it didn’t do much to the power gap. Kyoka and Mezo came up with a plan that would see them well.

Using their recon abilities they paid attention to where the enemy team was and moved the bomb to avoid them. This tactic would only work for just over seven minutes before luck would end it, Mina happened to come up the stairs in time to see the bomb. Kyoka and Mezo weere far from stupid, they surrendered.

Mina’s strength and Denki’s lightning meant pinning either was impossible, maybe they could get lucky but it wasn’t worth while to them. They were at too much a disadvantage to stand a chance of stalling long enough. A gap Kyoka was determined to close eventually.

All Might asked the class what they could tell from the test, most coming to the same conclusion. Kyoka and Mezo made the best of a losing situation. All Might turned and drew the lots for the next battle. He grinned further at what he saw, something that was sure to be good.

“Team C as the heroes and team J as the villains.” All Might said, watching the two teams. Momo and Izuku moved through the villains door quickly while Shouto and Eijiro took the hero’s side. Izuku and Momo stepped into the city, they had ten minutes to prepare for the heroes. 

“Can you make neon gas?” Izuku turned to her partner immediately. Momo blinked for a moment and nodded.

“Pure neon?” Izuku nodded and Momo produced the gas in a shower of light. Izuku waited a moment before swiping a neon coated hand through the gas, a light scrotch mark blitzing into the ground. Izuku held a hand out.

“You mind?” Izuku said. Momo simply took her hand and they vanished in a flurry of light. Izuku and Momo repeated their actions three more times, once in the street and twice on top of the buildings. Once that was done the two entered the building.

“You said Kirishima punched through the one pointers correct?” Momo said once they’d located the bomb. Izuku nodded. “You take on Todoroki, I’ll handle Kirishima then.”

“I’ll keep the fight outside.” Izuku said, she elaborated at Momo’s curious look. “Taking Todoroki outside will let me go all out, in here it’d only risk our base.”

“I’ll hold the line here and keep Kirishima from the bomb.” Momo said. She paused. “Can you see in the dark?”

“Not exactly. My neon powers come with a sort of sense I can pulse.” Izuku said. “Important things are picked up by it, the bague shape of my surroundings, friends and foes and neon sources.”

“That’s still more than they’ll have.” Momo pulled a pair of streamlined goggles from her arm. “All Might, do the cameras have night vision?”

_ “They should, yes.”  _ Momo nodded and set to work knocking out the lights in the room. Izuku smirked and rushed to do the same to much of the building. Once that was done she came back into the room, their starting position. Momo watched her pull her own goggles down and lift her mask up, a series of clicks indicating it had locked in place. Then all at once the lights on Izuku’s suit died.

* * *

“What’s going on?” Denki said. The screens in the room all shifted to shades of green and grey as the lights were destroyed.

“They’re giving themselves every advantage they can.” Tenya said. He looked confused however. “Although Yaoyorozu only made one set of night vision goggles.”

“Fetch doesn’t need them if she isn’t staying in the building.” Katsuki cut in. He scoffed at the class's looks. “She always has an idea about her surroundings. If she’s trying to drive them out of the building then she won't need more than that.”

“Fetch is a little destructive for indoor fighting.” Ochako said, laughing as others looked at eachother. Most looked to someone else they thought wouldn’t do well indoors. Ochako herself tugged lightly on the string of her bow. 

“A little?” Mina said, bursting out in laughter. “I’m sorry what did you tell me she did at the entrance exam?”

“I doubt she’s going to do that.” Ochako said, shrugging. 

“Fetch? She’d fucking throw two if that’s what she thought she needed to do.” Katsuki said, a near growl in his tone.

“Are you talking about what she did to the zero pointer?” Tenya said, receiving eager nods in turn. He looked back to the monitors and gulped.

“What are you talking about? What’d she do to the zero pointer?” Denki said. He received no answer. “Guys?”

* * *

“Look man I’m telling you Midoriya is no joke.” Eijiro said, trying to convince his partner. “You haven’t seen what she did in the entrance exam.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it, but that won't be today.” Shouto said. He stood in front of the door leading into the cityscape. The two stood there for only a minute longer. The door opened and they rushed out, running straight to the building. Neither noticed teh scorch marks on the ground as they passed.

“So what are we doing?” Eijiro said, Shouto walked up to the building and pressed his hand to the wall.

“This.” A wave of ice spread from his hand. Ice quickly encased the entire building. Shouto waited and stopped when All Might didn’t announce them the victors. “We’ll have to go to the bomb.”

Shouto didn’t give Eijiro a chance to protest as he advanced into the building. By the time they reached the first staircase they had both noticed the problem, there was no light. The interior of the building was shrouded in pure darkness, nary a spark to be seen. The two ascended the stairs, rightfully assuming the bomb wouldn’t be so easy to find.

Shouto paused as he heard a click at the end of the hallway. A green light glowed in the distance, shaped like some type of goggles, a pair of dancing hearts turning into lines. Then the footsteps started as it got closer, pink light cascading over the form and lightning the area. Izuku slammed into Shouto with all the force of a tank, launching them down the stairs. He barely made it to his feet before she was on him again, launching back out of the building entirely.

“Really thought it’d be that easy hero?” Izuku said, her voice modulated slightly with a reverb by her mask. Neon light erupted around her hands. “A little ice to take us out? Not a chance in hell.”

“So you bright me outside.” Shouto said. Ice erupted around him, jagged spires lancing towards his opponent. Izuku dashed backwards and up the wall. She jumped back off, twisting in mid air and gathered energy in her hands. She let the power build as she fell until she hit the ground. A wave of pink light cascading over the street.

“Out here I can do what I want.” Izuku grinned at him as she spread her arms. “There’s nothing I care about breaking.”

A salvo of missiles erupted over to him. Each of them exploding quickly upon impact. A car on the street toppled into the air and chunks of the street burst apart. Izuku ran passed, bursting even faster as she turned around and skidded to a halt. She brought her hands together, neon glowing between them.

_ “Young Midoriya you can not utilize such an attack during training!”  _ “Shouto’s eyes widened, glancing to the light even as Izuku rolled her eyes.

“I’m not throwing a singularity All Might.” Izuku said. Bringing her hands forward only to pause at the sound of a gunshot. Shouto froze seconds later and Izuku raised one eyebrow.

“Your partner shot mine.” Shouto said. Izuku snickered at his deadpan delivery.

“I take it he’s okay?” Shouto nodded. Izuku grinned. “Good.”

A wave of neon hit him and he felt his feet leave the ground. Shouto waited to make contact with the ground and was quite surprised with how long it was taking. By the time he had dropped Izuku had already secured the capture tape around his wrist.

Meanwhile Momo barely had to wait before Eijiro came into the room. A sword was already in her hand. The two clashed twice, sending sparks before Eijiro backed off. Momo reached for her forearm with her free hand, waiting for the right moment.

“Did you really need to knock out the lights?” He said. He raised his arm as red and blue light erupted around Momo’s arm. She drew something and pointed it at him.

“Yes.” There was a bang and sparks as something cracked into his arm. Eijiro blinked and winced at the dull ache.

“Did… did you shoot me?” Momo responded by firing again. Eijiro yelped and kept his guard up. “With real bullets!?”

“You punched through steel plating, a handgun wont get through you.” Momo squeezed the trigger again. Eijiro took a step back as she walked forward.

“Why do you even know how to use that!?” Eijiro ducked and blocked another pair of shots.

“You’d be surprised what busy rich parents will do to appease their adhd children.” Momo said. There was a beat.

_ “I’m sorry.” _ All Might's voice came over both their headsets. Momo and Eijiro just stood there afterwards.

“Your partner was captured by the way.”

“Yeah I’m not fighting this.”

* * *

“You're crazy.” Izuku said to Momo as they reentered the main room. “A handgun? Are you after chaos?”

“I just thought that if he could punch through the robots he could handle it.” Momo stammered out, Izuku laughed. Ochako nudged Mina and both turned towards the pair. Mina grinned and leaned over to Ochako.

“Watch this.” Mina stood straighter and called over to Izuku. “Hey! Making new friends?”

“Yeah.” Ochako could almost see the wheels turn in Izuku’s eyes, even past the meteors. “Chaos, my friends Orbit and Psych.”

“We’ve already met remember- Chaos?” Momo turned back to Izuku.

“Fetch does it to everyone.” Mina said, Ochako made a so-so gesture. “Well, just friends.”

“Chaos.” Momo mulled the word over for a time. “I suppose this means you want me to call you Fetch?”

“I’d prefer it, yeah.” While the four talked the next group went through and before they knew it it was Ochako’s turn. She stepped up to the hero side beside her partner, Koji. Rikido and Tsuyu on the villains side.

Izuku had a solid idea of how it would go. While Koji’s quirk had potential it may not prove useful in this exercise, Ochako had great combat ability and her bow but little training outside said bow. Meanwhile Rikido and Tsuyu had incredible combat potential, both of them having higher strength than normal and Tsuyu having far superior mobility.

“Two hundred on Orbit and Koda.” Izuku said before the match started. Momo eyed her warily as several others chimed in their agreements, most betting against him.

Izuku smirked as the fight started, Ochako pulled her bow free and drew an arrow back. Letting the string go she fired to the top of the building. Squirrels and birds scrambled around the building, gathering vital information and relaying it back to Koji. The two entered the building.

Needless to say Izuku was right. Once the two teams met Ochako fired two quick shots, one on either side of the hall. A swipe at the case for the arrows caused the two to fire a net as Tsuyu and Rikido passed. Quickly the two were captured and All Might announced the winner.

“Told you.” Izuku said, laughing at the misery on the other's faces.

* * *

“You’re certain?” Aizawa said, looking warily at Nezu.

“I am. These are the members of your class closest to approaching the singularity barrier.” Nezu said. Aizawa looked once more at the list, his eyes scanning the few names listed.

“Watch the four who already passed and see if anyone else displays those signs.” Aizawa said, Nezu nodded.

“That is the best course of action. If we can catch them all early enough we may be able to circumvent any chances of control loss.” Nezu said. He picked up the list and looked over the names. “And if this many of our students are near or passed the barrier then how many villains can say the same?”

“You know how this theory ends don’t you.”

“With the quirk completely overtaking the person?” Nezu said, an eyebrow raised. “Wtih their quirk becoming all that they are as if it was just some parasite biding it’s time until it could take over the host body? Of course I know it. It’s wrong.”

“Are you confident?”

“I’m certain.” Nezu said, he stood up and climbed onto the desk. “Quirks aren’t fully understood Aizawa but one thing we do know is that they are not parasites. These kids will grow into the most powerful heroes of their time, and if you motivate them right, of all time.”

“Right.”:

“We have to equip them to do so. That’s all we have to do, teach them and train them. We don’t get to make choices based on what we don’t know and can’t know.” Nezu paused. “And besides, there’s still so much to learn.”

Aizawa shivered at his tone. There was something about the way Nezu spoke that had always left the staff feeling like they were pawns on a chessboard with Nezu at it’s helm. Who he was against they weren’t sure but despite this feeling they knew they’d choose his side regardless.

* * *

Later that night, unknown to anyone something shifted. In four households a light danced. Within four rooms. Red and \blues sparkles fill the air with a whimsical sense of wonder, all the while unseen.

Momo’s skin shimmered with the sparkled light, dancing as if trying to create something and failing. Constantly, unendingly. Shifting. Back and forth, back and forth, each revolution changing something and yet producing seemingly nothing.

Mina’s arm glowed with red lines that shimmered blue. Shadowy figures hovering over her. Each watching as if mesmerized and unable, or unwilling to look away. Their shadowed yellow eyes making it impossible to see what they saw.

Red fire and Blue ice flickered and died around Shouto. Seemingly bouncing off each other, little drops of water falling each time. Slowly a mist began to rise in the room, all the while tiny lights danced through the air from Shouto.

Izuku rolled over in her bed, the red and blue glow illuminating her body as her. A screen hovered before her, somehow remaining active. The screen flickered once as text began to appear.

_ Initializing program code A-1-C… _

_Initialized_

_ Scanning knowledge base.... _

_Analyzing_ _ … _

_ Adjusting parameters _

_Protocol_ _ status: ALPHA-1 _

_ Protect User at all cost _

_ Zero failures detected _

_Protocol_ _ status: In progress _

All the while they remained asleep, completely unaware of anything going on around them

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> had a bit of free time, figured I'd update.
> 
> Now to make this clear. Momo is misstating things. More like her parents aiding one of her hype focuses in hopes that it may help her focus on other things (Spoiler, that doesn't always work out) Honestly sometimes wish I could indulge in some of my more expensive hype focuses (Looking at you MTG)


End file.
